San Francisco Explorations

The last three days of the trip were spent in San Francisco. We have been there a few times before, but Norm and Barb have only been there for one day with us and the boys around 2005 during a Las Vegas long weekend - but that's another story.

We left the ship and caught two taxis to the hotel. The taxis in southern California are for the most part rather small, even the SUVs, since energy conservation and pollution control are obviously very important to all residents. We even noticed that there is preferred parking in some places for hybrid or electric vehicles! So we couldn't fit 4 people and 4 suitcases into any one of the taxis or vans we saw. Our routes were rather roundabout due to construction all over the place, even in front of the hotel, but we managed to get there.

After check-in, a quick stop at the concierge desk armed us with city maps and information on where we could buy passes for the municipal transit system. And then we were off! The 'F' Streetcar Line is really amazing. It is the main tourist line, along with the cable car system. The streetcars run along the Embarcadero from Fisherman's Wharf, then goes up Market Street to Union Square. The other neat thing about the line is that they have bought streetcars from all over the world to use - even from the TTC! We saw one of the old 'Red Rocket' cars, but never had an opportunity to ride on one.

We took the streetcar to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, checked out the Pier and headed over to the wharf to find something for lunch. We ended up at Alioto's, one of the oldest restaurants in the area, having been on the wharf since 1926.

 

The view from Alioto's at Fisherman's Wharf

 

 

 

The Hyde Street turnaround. Just a block away from
Ghirardelli Square

 

 

And after lunch we decided to walk around to the cable car track to see if we could get aboard the Hyde Street car to Union Square. And, after a half hour or so waiting, we finally boarded and took the car all the way to the end. It was quite a trip, and a lot of fun. And since our hotel was down at the end of Market Street, we decided to walk back...Of course, on the way we passed one of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shops and had to go in for 'dessert'.

 

Friday evening was rather low-key, and then we discovered that our planned trip to Alcatraz was a bust because of the US Federal Government shutdown. We had forgotten that the island is actually a federal park, and was closed to visitors. Once we determined that the tour company would credit back our credit card for the tickets, we decided to do a harbour tour instead and still see some of the prison. Here are some of the photos from that tour:

The sea lion rafts at Pier 39. Always a big hit with the tourists

 

 The fireboat in the harbour didn't have any other reason to
be spouting but it accompanied us all the way out to the bridge.
That's Sausalito in the background.

The Golden Gate Bridge and the south side building. The north
side doesn't have that extra little span and has a much smaller building.

Some fishing boats off the cliffs near the north side
of the bridge.

Alcatraz Island, the prison of last resort. They say that even
the bodies of dead prisoners were taken off the island
in chains.

 

Do you think this warning was clear enough?

The Ferry Building from the water side. Our hotel is the
one in the bottom right corner with the tiered balconies.

The Atrium of the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero.

 

Our view of the old span of the Oakland Bay Bridge at night.
The lights move constantly; it is the largest light sculpture
in the world.

Saturday evening we went to see the long-running musical 'Beach Blanket Babylon'. This is a spoof of current celebrities, mainly politicians and singers, and is quite funny and current. Especially the wig parts of the outfits, all highly exaggerated. Unfortunately we couldn't take any photos but you can see more about it if you Google the name.

Sunday, we (Larry and Monica) went back to Neptune's Palace for our traditional Dungeness Crab lunch. Need we say much more?

 

And for dinner, we met up to finally get to the oyster bar at the Ferry Building and then headed for the BART rapid transit system to get out to the O.co Stadium in Oakland for the NFL game between the Raiders and the San Diego Chargers. It was certainly different, but not as manic as we had been led to believe. Maybe that was because the game wasn't being televised, or maybe because it was originally a 1:00 game that got moved to 8:30. We found out why when they showed a time-lapse video of the conversion from a baseball stadium to a football stadium, that must take about 14 hours to complete - and you have to remember that the Oakland Athletics are in the playoffs this year and played on Saturday evening.

 

 

All in all, a very interesting experience! And having returned to the hotel just before midnight, we had to be prepared for a 9:15 pickup for the airport.

The last photo of the trip, taken from the plane:

The Oakland Bay Bridge in the foreground, Golden Gate
in the back, and the City by the Bay waiting for
our return.

 

It was a great trip; we saw much more of California that we had ever done before, and discovered that it is a wonderful place to visit for the scenery, the food, the wine and the very friendly people. Thanks to everyone we met along the way for being so welcoming, and thanks to you for following along. Hope you enjoyed!